They Never Noticed
by WorTri
Summary: As a second year in Teikou, part of the GoM, Midorima has a lot of pressure to excell. He feels like he is weak, and the others seem to hate him. He turns to neglecting himself to improve as to be accepted by the team. But what happens if one day, his carefully constructed balance comes crashing down? Can Akashi and the team help put him back together? [Midorima-centric]


**Note: This is back in Teikou, in their second year. I apologize in advance if they seem OOC! This is as if Akashi never had a split personality, but still feels like he will be surpassed, which is part of the reason why he empathizes. I do not own the character of Kuroko no Basuke.**

 _No one had ever asked._

Midorima stumbled into Teikou's basketball practice a few minutes late. Coughing slightly, he opened the gym doors to see the remaining members of the Generation of Miracles glaring at him.

"You're late! Do you think you'll be able to get any better like that?" screamed the coach.

"But- "

"I don't want to hear any buts! Get to practice!"

 _But everyone else never goes to practice,_ a little voice said in the back of his head. _It's just because you are awful at basketball. You are weak, and you hold them back._

Gritting his teeth, Midorima vowed, _I will become the best shooter in Japan. Just watch…!_

 _They didn't even notice I was sick…_

After practice, Midorima immediately volunteered to clean up. Without throwing him a second glance, the third year thrust the broom forcefully into his chest, making him stumble back, before dashing out the door.

 _Everyone left without saying goodbye…_

Looking out the door, he watched as laughing groups of friends waved to each other as they left practice. No one noticed the single boy watching from the still-lit gym, longing for a friend.

He quickly sent a text to his parents, saying he needed to stay at a friend's house for a project. He received a reply a minute later, telling him to remember lunch the next day.

Now that everyone was gone, he grabbed a basketball from storage. _My shot will be the best!_

He shot again and again, from any distance he could, always aiming for that one hoop.

A few hours later, he looked up, swaying slightly on his feet. _What time is it?_

 _Oh, it's only eleven. I need more practice._

Nearing midnight, he finally stopped practice to take a shower in the locker room before cleaning the gym. He placed his uniform jacket over himself, and slept that night in a corner of the gym with his phone alarm set to six, half an hour before the earliest would arrive. _Enough time to make myself look like I was walking to school._

The next morning, no one noticed anything was wrong. Midorima sighed a silent sigh of relief.

 _Alright, it worked. I'll keep practicing then!_

Day after day, in the months leading to the preliminaries to Nationals, Midorima returned to the gym each night. No one noticed that he was the only one cleaning up each night. None of the Generation ever noticed the heightening fatigue that streaked his features. What they did notice however was his improvement.

Kise caught up to him during lunch break.

"Hey Midorimacchi!"

"Kise-san."

"Uwah, so cold! Your shot has improved so much! It must be from Momoi-chan's help."

Hearing her name, the girl looked up.

"Hm? No, I haven't been watching nor helping Midorima at all."

Hearing her blunt admission, Midorima's heart froze in his chest. _She never… not once… bothered to look?_

His pride at the achievement and praise crumbled as suddenly he was fighting tears.

 _I can't cry here- I have to get away!_

"Excuse me for a moment-" he choked out.

"Ara? Where are you going?" asked Kise.

"-Bathroom" he muttered before running out.

"Must be another of his strange mood swings then. Geez, that kid is a handful! What with his stupid zodiac, sucky social skills…"

Hearing Kise's words as he left further crushed Midorima's fragile spirit.

A lump grew in his throat as he stumbled into the bathroom, locking himself in a stall before completely breaking down.

He sat there with his head in his hands and cried for what seemed like hours, pouring out his troubles where no one could see him. Unbeknownst to him, a head of maroon hair carefully peeked through the crack, eyes widening as they spotted the signature green hair. Akashi slipped back out of the bathroom, wondering what he had just seen.

Midorima finally calmed down, fisting his hands so tightly that his precious fingers, the ones he depended on to shoot, dug into his palm leaving violent red marks. Wiping the last traces of tears away, he splashed water on his face and arranged his glasses so that they covered up his slightly red eyes. Grasping his lucky item for the day, he walked out of the bathroom.

 _No one ever asks if I'm okay._

That night, Midorima pushed and pushed and pushed until he was struggling to stay on his feet, struggling to stay awake, because he was **weak** , and he held them back, and so that he didn't become a burden, this was necessary.

At three in the morning, he finally collapsed to the ground, and started to sob. It wasn't that his shot was bad, it was just-

 _How they treat me. Am I even valuable as a part of the team?_

That annoying voice from his head popped up again.

 _Of course not! They value you because of this shot. To be accepted, you must excel!_

Midorima slowly cleaned up the gym, and stood under the hot water of his shower steeling himself for the day ahead.

The next morning, the bags under his eyes were much more pronounced than before. However, as it appeared, the only one who bothered to notice was his homeroom teacher.

"Midorima-kun, you look rather tired. Would you like to take a rest at the health office?"

"Thank you, but I can't miss a lesson."

"Can't someone copy the notes for you?"

Midorima closed his eyes, smiling ruefully.

"No."

The prelims drew ever nearer, looming over them with a promise of doom. Midorima worked harder, stayed later, and improved in leaps and bounds.

Although his skill levels continued to soar, between keeping up practice and good grades, his health and stress levels were taking a hit.

He found himself drifting off, stumbling in the hallways, and struggling in gym. However, he always made sure he was at his best at practice.

 _If I fail, they'll kick me off the team…! They only care for my skill, if I hold them back I'll be kicked off without a second thought!_

His observational skills were off kilter, and as such, he did not notice Akashi watching him once again.

Akashi approached Aomine to ask if he had noticed.

"Aomine, have you noticed anything off about Midorima?"

Aomine's features twisted into something sour upon hearing his name.

"What, that superstitious stick-in-the-mud? Who cares about him, anyway? Of course not. He's still as annoying as ever."

Akashi frowned. He was not one to be extremely close to people, so it was usual for him not to care, but for everyone else on the team to dislike Midorima this much… He wasn't a bad guy, and he never seemed to be with anyone...

 _Also, he was crying earlier._

After school, Akashi followed Midorima, watching wide-eyed from the doorway as he shot basket after basket late into the night.

-On the day of the Preliminaries-

Kuroko sat between Aomine and Kise in the carpool on the way to the gym.

"Where's Midorima? I thought everyone was riding this carpool."

"K-Kuroko, don't scare me like that! I had no idea you were there!" Kise jumped away from Kuroko.

"To answer your question, we didn't invite him. To be honest, he's annoying, and he'd just spoil the mood," put in Murasakibara.

Akashi was shocked by the deliberately cruel answer.

 _It's not like he wants to be like that, you leave him out!_

Kuroko stayed silent for the rest of the trip.

Midorima stretched as he waited at the gym for the rest of the team to arrive. He had hastily bandaged his knee from an injury the night before from jumping repeatedly for hours on end. Tightening the brace, he hoped they wouldn't notice.

 _Who am I kidding, of course they won't notice._

Upon walking in, Akashi found Midorima almost instantly from the color of his hair. Spotting the knee-brace, he frowned, not saying anything.

"Hurry up, the game will start soon!" called Aomine, as if he was not last to arrive.

Midorima walked along, ignoring the warning twinges from his knee.

The two teams filed onto the court and bowed.

"Let's have a good match!"

The game started, with Teikou taking an early lead.

Akashi watched all the players on the team, being the captain, but was amazed by Midorima's pure skill in shooting baskets from impossible distances.

 _His shooting skill will soon surpass all of us!_

After the first quarter, Aomine pounded Midorima on the back.

"Good work! Keep it up!"

"Thank you…" Midorima replied hesitantly, allowing a tiny smile, the first in months, to flit across his features.

As the game wore on, the more shots Midorima took, the higher the toll it had on his body. The lack of sleep, food, and the injured knee all pressured him.

Halfway through the third quarter, it became too much.

Midorima's knee gave way under him, and his lack of energy didn't help much as he crashed to the ground while trying to receive a pass.

 _No… not now!_

His vision slowly spotted over, as he saw the shocked faces of his teammates crowd over him.

"Oi, what happened?" demanded Aomine.

"His knee appears to be injured," said Momoi. "Over practice?"

"How?" asked the coach. "He only practices with the rest of us, and he's always looked fine."

"… you never asked," Akashi said quietly, looking down at Midorima's surprisingly peaceful face.

"Huh?"

"YOU NEVER ASKED! WHETHER HE WAS OKAY, WHETHER HE WAS HEALTHY, WHETHER HE WAS PLAIN LONELY!"

"What? Him, lonely?"

"When do you see him eat lunch?"

"Er…"

"None of you ever join him. So you don't know he practices all lunch and hardly eats."

"EH?"

"Do you ever wait after practice to walk home with him?"

"Of course not! Who'd want to walk with him?"

"Then you wouldn't have ever seen that pitifully lonely expression on his face as he practices every night for hours after you leave! Did anyone else see the growing bags under his eyes, or the fact that he lost weight, or that your harsh words would make him cry?"

"…"

"Exactly." Akashi said coldly. "Now someone help me get him to the nurse."

The team was silent after Akashi's outburst.

"I never realized…" piped up Kise. "I've seen him at lunch, but always never in the lunch room and hardly with food."

"None of you ever go to practice, so you wouldn't have noticed there," growled the coach.

"We… make him cry?"

"We have to fix this and our relationship with him. We owe it to him to try. Now, let's win this game so we can hurry back!"

"OSU!"

 **A/N:**

 **Well, that was a wild ride. I feel like so many of the members of the team underestimate the effort that Midorima puts in, and so many of them hate him. I feel bad for Midorimacchi…** **Also, I chose Akashi as the one who realized because a) He's the captain and b) He is shown to have the closest relationship with him. This is a twoshot, though, so the recovery process should be up maybe tomorrow? (I say that, but it will be whenever I stop being lazy** **) Please review, favorite and follow! If you do, Midorimacchi will lend you his lucky item!**


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